10/26/2000Vikings' Football Team To Face Springfield's JV

The Hudson Valley Community College football team will play at Springfield College, against the JV squad, at 11 a.m. on Sunday, October 29. The game, a non-conference matchup, will be played at Benendum Field in Springfield, Mass. Hudson Valley is 5-3 (3-2 Northeast Football Conference). Springfield's JV is 1-3.

Tailback Gary Jones (Ravena) and wide receiver Shawn Miller (Troy) lead the Vikings offensively. The second-year player has rushed for 812 yards and 15 touchdowns this season, breaking Dennis Greene's 1971 school record for rushing touchdowns in a season. Miller has 33 receptions for 649 yards and seven touchdowns. Against Navy Prep last week, he had a school-record 11 catches.

Second-year defensive back Derrick Black (Tarboro, NC) anchors Hudson Valley's defense. Black, who has recorded 11 career interceptions, the most in school history, has seven picks this season. He needs just one more to tie Robert Harris' 1981 single-season record.

As a team, the Vikings have committed just 17 turnovers while forcing 33. They have posted two shutouts and have outscored their opponents 274-129.

Hudson Valley defeated Springfield's JV, 24-0, when they played last, in 1996.

Hudson Valley's football program was established in 1969. At the time, Hudson Valley was one of only two junior colleges in New York to field a varsity football team. Since then, nearly 300 Hudson Valley football players have earned scholarships to four-year schools and 15 have gone on to play professionally. The Vikings competed in the Coca Cola Bowl in Iowa in 1980. In 1996, Hudson Valley posted an 8-0 record, part of dominant stretch that included 15 straight victories.